Rangers Waive Tony DeAngelo After Post-Game Altercation With Alexandar Georgiev
Mike Stobe. Getty Images.NYR Twitter was JUMPING after I finished my earlier post when news hit that Tony DeAngelo - the same 25 year-old Tony DeAngelo who had just reupped with the Blueshirts for 2 years/$4.8M per after 53 points in 68 games from the blue line - was placed on waivers.
DeAngelo (NYR) on waivers
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 31, 2021
The volatile defenseman has had a history of disciplinary issues since junior hockey & certainly had his run-ins with Coach Quinn that have resulted in a fair share of benchings or scratches - most recently after the Rangers very first game of the season. So even though he's had a rough six games on the ice, it was easy to speculate their willingness to part with him for absolutely nothing had to have been on the heels of a serious incident off of it. Rumors started swirling that DeAngelo might've gotten into a skirmish with a teammate after last night's tough loss and the wheels started churning.
OK so Tony was stuck on the ice for almost 2 minutes before they lost in OT. He's emotional for sure. Tough way to lose.
— 610 (@610Barstool) January 31, 2021
There was a play where Georgiev played the puck past Tony behind the net - maybe that's why he was mad so he started barking at Georgie in the tunnel?
And I doubt Georgie is gonna really bark back so I'm guessing Trouba came in to save the day.
— 610 (@610Barstool) January 31, 2021
That's it. My money is in Trouba.
Dark horse: Brendan Smith
Others in Rangers Twitter started analyzing post-game tape and found evidence pointing to Chris Kreider being the teammate to tag DeAngelo and that's when we started having some fun.
Chris Kreider sent DeAngelo to waivers like pic.twitter.com/ISo7aaWllD
— 610 (@610Barstool) January 31, 2021
Then we finally got to the bottom of it, according to Rangers beat writer Rick Carpinello. It was indeed a physical altercation with Georgiev after the game that had to be broken up by the team. Now I know this might not make sense to a lot of people but for as long as I've played hockey I've inherently known one thing. It's a bitch move to go after your own goalie, period. Yet if your goalie loses his shit on you - that's OK. No one ever taught me that, it's just how it is and I know that's common knowledge at any level of the game. We don't know what was said, who threw first or anything else other than there was an altercation but it almost doesn't matter.
I have no axe to grind against Tony. I wrote back in August and my opinion is still the same - I don't care about his (or anyone's) politics. I know there's people who want to make this situation what it's about but I won't. The fact is, there's a substantial difference between a "fiery" teammate and an "insubordinate" one. This incident is clearly the last straw from the Rangers perspective and they didn't waste any time making their stance perfectly clear. So what happens now?
Well on the surface it seems like there's just gotta be one of 30 teams willing to roll the dice on adding a supremely talented offensive weapon in his prime for nothing. However, not too many have room for his contract and out of those teams, how many are willing to bring in a player who's been ostracized from three other organizations already? If JD & Gorton were willing to waive him then their ideal solution would be to see him claimed so they can be free & clear. From there, maybe they make a move of their own (Vince Dunn?). I just don't think it's such a sure thing anyone else is willing to risk interjecting a rebuilding team (assuming that'd be the type of squad to pounce) with a personality no one else has yet to be able to keep in line.
If he's not claimed, things get interesting. Do they just put him on the taxi squad? That'd certainly be awkward & do little to accomplish the apparent goal of letting anyone in the league take DeAngelo from them for free. They could put him in the AHL and bury a mil against the cap but it doesn't seem smart to want to surround your youth with a pissed off version of a problem child you couldn't control in the pros. If a trade happens to come together, the Blueshirts will most certainly be eating plenty of money & recouping next to nothing in terms of assets.
The Rangers were already at a crossroads early on this season sitting firmly at the bottom of the East division. Now these next 24 hours get real interesting. It's clear the organization is done with DeAngelo in theory, but if he goes unclaimed they're not done at all. In terms of the team, Tony D has a lot of pals - but that's only gonna get you so far. He's gone overboard with opponents, with officials & with coaches. The one line he hadn't crossed yet to my knowledge was butting heads with his teammates. Until now. And the team is always bigger than the individual no matter how close a friend he is. No one in that locker room wants to deal with this shit on top of the struggles they're having simply winning games. Could something like this galvanize a young squad looking to find themselves?
We'll see real soon.